Google Unveils $37m AI Push Across Africa, Targeting Agriculture, Health, Education in Ghana, Nigeria and Others

Tech giant Google has announced a $37 million investment to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) development across Africa, with a focus on key sectors including agriculture, health, and education.

The initiative cuts across several countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, and is anchored by the launch of an AI community centre in Accra.

Speaking at the launch, Google Senior Vice President James Manyika described Africa as home to “some of the most important and inspiring work in AI today.”

The new community centre in Ghana’s capital will serve as a hub for AI literacy, training, research, and collaboration. Among the flagship programmes is the AI Collaborative for Food Security, which will link researchers and non-profits to develop tools that strengthen food systems across the continent.

The initiative aims to enhance early hunger detection, crop resilience, and decision-making among smallholder farmers amid rising climate and economic pressures.

Agriculture is already benefiting from AI innovations in parts of Africa. In Nigeria, a vibrant tech sector has seen the rise of agri-tech companies that deploy AI to monitor soil, temperature, and humidity, leading to improved farming outcomes.

In addition to agriculture, Google is also launching a financing platform to support AI startups in the health and education sectors, where AI tools are being used for everything from maternal health tech in Ghana and Nigeria to school management solutions.

As part of its philanthropic commitments, Google will allocate $7 million to expand AI education programs in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. This includes funding for local training programs and increasing access to AI skills development.

Further support for linguistic diversity on the continent comes in the form of $3 million in funding for Masakhane, a pan-African tech collective working to advance AI tools in more than 40 African languages.

Two major $1 million research grants have also been awarded to South African institutions: the African Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery Institute.

Ghana’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technology, Sam George, praised the initiative and urged citizens to harness AI to address pressing national issues, including urban flooding, waste management, and traffic congestion.

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